In addition to Leachman, the film also stars John Schneider (The Dukes of Hazzard, Smallville) as Sheriff James Riley. The rest of the principal cast is rounded out by Sarah LaFleur playing Riley’s romantic interest Emma Warner, Sam McMurray playing big-game hunter Struthers, and Chad Collins playing Riley’s son Scott. I looked at those names and couldn’t think of a single thing I’d seen them in. I knew the prospect of a break-even sequel was dimming.

The budget for the original show, probably because producer David E. Kelley (Boston Legal) wrote the original script, was just short of $30 million. The sequel’s budget was $2 million, and it shows drastically. Kelley’s lighthearted and twisted approach to the material is also MIA.

The movie quickly devolves into predictable action and special effects, really weak special effects. The cutting one-liners, almost asides to the audience, are missing. And the tension just never really exists. It’s a vapid chomp-fest from beginning to end, and just never comes close to the original. Everyone, monsters included, simply go through the paces.

Interestingly enough, the film was made-for-television but at some point had nudity shot to add into the Unrated version of the film. That accounts for about four additional minutes of naked soon-to-be ‘gator bait that harkens back to that old horror standby: get naked, have sex, and die.

There are making-of featurettes included on the disc that present some of the background of the film, but it's hard to talk about any cool CGI work when there wasn't any, or any spell-binding scenes. I felt bad for the people involved because you could tell they were earnest and had worked hard on the film.

I didn’t care for Lake Placid 2. I never once got involved with the action or the characters. The presentation is purely paint-by-numbers with few saving graces. Watching Cloris Leachman take over the Betty White role was funny, though, but I think by that point I was desperate for anything that even came close to funny. If you’ve seen the first movie, you might want to see this one, but once you’re finished I doubt you’ll ever want to see it again.